Orange Crush - Clue #4 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt

I can't stand it!  These beautiful fabrics are sitting here calling me to cut them up and finally we get the chance on the next clue.  Perhaps I will just get the cutting finished and be ready for clue day.  This red and black are just luscious to me and I can't wait to see how it will all fit together.  There now, I have a wonderful little stack of red/black triangles ready to become grown up HST's.  Now to get back to my list of today's activities.  I will stay away from these until I get back from DC.  I will stay away from these until I get back from DC.  Repeat that mantra all day, I tell myself and I am successful.

Let's Fly Some Geese -- Easy Street - Clue #2 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt

I am flying tomorrow so have worked ahead on Clue 2 for Easy Street.  Mister keeps laughing at me as I work on this one and shake my head muttering under my breath how much I am starting to like purple.  I have NEVER cared for this color and always associated it with old ladies.  Thus the laughter from Mister.  Apparently I am an old lady.

Today's clue is flying geese.  Beautiful little purple and white geese.  With the easy angle ruler and companion angle rulers, these are oh so easy to do.

Since my pieces are all pre-cut and waiting to be sewn, it is just a matter of placing my brightly colored stack of triangles next to my pretty little machine and start chaining one side.

I literally takes me less than half an hour to get through the required amount. (And no eaten tips -- the feed dogs are denied due to this ruler.)

Orange Crush - Clue #3 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt

It's Friday and that means it's time to post about another clue.  Yay!  I have been so busy today that this is the first chance I have had at the computer for more than 5 minutes at a time.  AND --- Mister came home and developed pictures first thing.  Ahhh, life is good.

So, onto clue 3.  We are making half-split four patches.  I have had to think long and hard on this one so that I don't have any waste.  I think I have figured it out.  Starting with a stack of 2" strips facing right side up.  After trimming the edge so that all are even, I flip it over until it is upside down.  THEN, I cut the first triangle with the easy angle ruler.  Next, flip the stack back over and grab the companion angle ruler and cut your next piece.

February Quilt Update

I have moved the previous posts to the end of the entry.  I hope that you make it that far.

Goals:  Retreat is this month and I may try and go see family.  Gotta stay sane on goals.

Round Robin (RR) blocks (14) - put into row, attach, and mail by 28th - yes
Grand Illusion (GI) Mystery Quilt blocks made, set. sandwiched, bound, labeled, quilted - lol no
Sewing Mats finished - yes
Weed Whacker (WW) units finished - yes

Wanderlust (W) - quilt, attach binding, label, bound - no
BOM blocks (6) complete - yes
Cut for Easy Street (ES) - yes 
Start Easy Street (ES) - yes clue 1 four patches, clue 2 half four patches
Start Orange Crush (OC) - yes four patches for clue #1

Retreat Goals:  (5th - 8th)

Valentine Mug Rug Project - yes
Sew Grand Illusion Blocks - no
RR blocks  - yes
Weed Whacker blocks made/set --- label/border worked on  - no

1st -  February is the month for love.  Valentines Day has always been one of my favorites and I get to add in Mister's birthday season to the month making it even more special.  I am excited to get it going.  Oh and how can I forget -- there is a retreat this month too.  Perfect.  That being said, let's get this month rolling.  Obviously I don't have enough to do with the many UFO's around the house so I'm going to jump on the Easy Street Quiltalong.  We stop to get the paint cards today and I am thrilled that after over 2 years, Valspar still has these colors, thus making the cards available.

Four-Patches My Way OR Easy Street - Clue #1 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt

It's time! It's time!  Clue #1 for the Easy Street mystery starts on Sunday, BUT I have plans to be in Waco on Saturday and we have family plans on Sunday, so I am cheating and getting a wee bit of a head start.

It seems like I am doing 4 patches right now for almost every project I have going, so I thought I would do a shot tutorial in conjunction with this clue post.  I have developed my own way of doing scrappy 4 patches and even though I know others take more short cuts -- this is what works for me to get the best mix of the fabrics I have available.  Since these have one constant fabric it makes it easy to show my method.  I start by matching up one of the scrappy fabric (in this case black on white prints) with one of the constant (for this quilt it is grey) fabric strips.  I use up everything that is available so my strips are all different lengths.  When sewing the strips together, if one strip is shorter, I don't cut it, I just add another strip to the short side and keep going, thus giving me one continuous length of strip sets until I have used up all 20 of my constant strips.  (They were the one I determined amount with as I could do the math and get the required inches that way.)

Now it is off to the ironing board to press these open and cut them apart whenever a fabric change was made.  Thus the different size strip sets you see in the picture.

Orange Crush - Clue #2 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt

It's clue day!  Love it.  As I cut the parts for this clue I find that I am loving this quilt more and more.  I have not had to touch a single piece of yardage yet.  It has been a simple matter of using the strips I have been working to build simply from cleaning up after myself over the last year of quilting.  I have full bins of both light and dark 2" strips, 3 1/2" strips and precut 2" squares.  I am indeed doing the happy dance while I start cutting.  Even after using a TON of strips in clue 1, my bin is still quite full and I am able to cut enough for this clue as well.

Once I have everything cut, I dig into my 2" square tin (which is overflowing) and try to pull 145 different squares.  Amazingly enough, I am almost able to do just that.  There are a few duplicates, but oh so very few.

Orange Crush Summary

I am gathering all of my Orange Crush (Bonnie Hunter June 2005 Mystery Quilt) posts and placing them here so that you can link up and find what you want easily.  They will each open in a new page, leaving you access to this post.  (The date on this post will change as I work on it, but will always include the most recent postings.)  Please become a follower and you will always know when the new post is up.  Welcome to you all and comment are always appreciated.

So, the way that this mystery came about was in the Quiltville Open Studio Facebook group.  Angela Neff was offering to head a group that wanted to work on one of the old mysteries.  Since they are free patterns and easy to work with, I jumped right in and decided to add another one to my already overflowing list of things to do.  I'm excited for this though and will post both in Quiltville Open Studio and in my own group, Our Quilt World where several others are playing along as well.

Let's see what variety we can get.

Here is the link to the into on Bonnie's own site:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/orange-crush-intro.html

Post 1 - Intro - Fabric Selection
Post 2 - Clue #1 - Four Patches
Post 3 - Clue #2 - Split Four Patches
Post 4 - Clue #3 - Half-split Four Patches
Post 5 - Clue #4 - HST's and Star Blocks
Post 6 - Clue #5 - Album Blocks, Half Album Blocks, and Corner Blocks
Post 7 - Clue #6 - The Big Reveal -- Setting and Borders
Post 8 - The Grand Finale